Bliss [haulage company] subsequently testified came from a Monsanto research lab. ibid.
They [resident family] didn’t just lose their house … They had been exposed to all these harmful chemicals and hazardous toxic waste. ibid.
The discovery of PCBs in the town. ibid.
‘Every member of my family was ill with something different.’ ibid. resident
Russell Bliss [haulage] was never convicted of any crime. ibid.
In the 1982 the DOJ … withheld documents from a Congressional investigation on the Times beach clean-up … They cite executive privilege. ibid.
On 19th December 2003 the failings of Britain’s transport system were exposed as never before. Decades of neglect led to a day of disaster. The Day Britain Stopped, BBC 2003
‘I really believe there’s no way we could have foreseen a chain reaction.’ ibid. official
The collapse of Britain’s entire transport system. ibid.
When a major airliner crashes the tragedy is overwhelming, the destruction sudden and complete. In the spring of 1979 a New York woman has a series of dreams of an airliner disaster in the mid-west; two months later a Cincinnati man dreams of a large jet in peril: it crashes and explodes. The dream repeats ten nights in a row and no matter what he does, it will not leave him alone. Were these dreams just nightmares or will they prove to be prophecies? In Search of s4e21 … Air Disaster Prediction, 1980
Man has fought wars in many terrible places over the century but never has he fought in a place as terrible as this. This is where the men who ran the Second World War Arctic convoys went to work, among not just the German submarines and planes but Nature at her most brutal. PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster, BBC 2019, Jeremy Clarkson reporting
Codenamed PQ17 it was the largest [convoy] that had ever sailed … The biggest naval disaster of the 20th century. ibid.
The task of delivering these supplies to Russia would fall to the men of the merchant Navy. ibid.
In the first 12 convoys to make the voyage there were 103 ships and only 1 was lost. ibid.
It [front end of Mercedes] went through the crowd like a torpedo. And it killed over 80 of them and killed over 100 more. There were even children in the front row. They were in the firing line. Ferrari: Race to Immortality, Doug Nye, historian, Sky Documentaries 2020
Portago’s crash: 9 spectators were killed, 5 of them children. It was not uncommon in the 1950s for spectators to be killed. ibid.
Parking in Baltimore becomes a slow-motion catastrophe. A narrow escape for the most famous building error in the book. A Manhattan skyscraper with a deadly design flaw. And a state of the art bridge with a balance problem. With big builds even the smallest mistake can be a huge disaster. From miscalculations to misunderstandings. These are the massive engineering mistakes that only an expert can hope to fix. When engineering goes wrong, news crews usually arrive after the dust has settled. But when the calamity is caught on camera, we get a unique window into what went wrong. Massive Engineering Mistakes s1e1, Quest 2020
Baltimore landslide: ‘And I can remember just seeing the vehicles go down, and they’re sinking, and sinking, and in a moment we watched that whole side of the street explode, and it hit like a mortar round, like boom!’ ibid.
Italy: the best known blooper of all time. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most famous buildings in the world. But just 30 years ago engineers came close to destroying it … The foundation is far from solid: the seven-metre tower sits on supports that are only 3 metres deep and surrounded by soggy ground. ibid.
New York: a skyscraper that was very nearly blown away. This tower hid a deadly flaw that could have devastated midtown Manhattan. Until a sharp-eyed engineering student saw the storm brewing … The new skyscraper straddled the church. Placing stilts under the sides not the corners meant they had to rewrite the construction rule-book. ibid.
London, England: a bridge that made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Bridges have been across the Thames for centuries. But twenty years ago a new iconic bridge left pedestrians with a very queasy feeling … The Millennium Bridge: a unique pedestrian-only crossing spanning the Thames. ibid.
The Baltic Sea 28 September 1994: ‘The Estonia was no ordinary accident. It was a devastating disaster of unseen proportions that claimed many lives and left many casualties.’ Estonia I: The Disaster, Discovery Plus 2021, Lars Borgnas, journalist
‘The ferry disaster is the worst tragedy to hit the Nordics since World War II. 852 people lost their lives; 760 of them are still at the bottom of the sea.’ ibid. news
None of the cars were being tied down despite the high winds. ibid. driver
Just after midnight there were two extremely loud bangs. ibid. survivor
Yes, we have a problem. We’re listing badly 20 or 30 degrees. Could you come to our assistance? ibid. ship’s mayday
We were walking over the cabin windows. ibid.
One of the worst maritime disasters ever has happened in the Baltic Sea. Estonia II: Everyone Shall Be Salvaged, television news
So water was coming in through the front of the boat, through the door? ibid. television news suggestion to crew member
With time it became clear that there was a shift from salvage to no salvage. ibid. Henrik S Jarrel, former Swedish MP
Meanwhile, the diving company Rockwater is examining the wreck of the Estonia. Rockwater will evacuate if it is possible to retrieve the deceased and salvage the wreck. ibid. commentary
Some of them still had lipstick on, still fresh as they were two months before. So one by one pass them down. ibid. diving dude
Our conclusion at the time was that a significant amount of the bodies could have been recovered. We pinpointed 125 victims which we documented in our reports … ibid. salvage dude
The agreement prohibits all diving on the wreck of the Estonia. It will take effect from 1st of July 1995. ibid. caption
There must have been hole in the ship. ibid. expert
The Estonia was no ordinary accident. It was a devastating disaster of unseen proportions that claimed many lives and left many devastated … There’s no room for suspicion or for hiding anything … The macabre idea was to cover the vessel. Estonia III: Something is Wrong, Lars Borgnas, journalist
It make no sense to cover the vessel with concrete. ibid. Carl Eric Eriantamm
After massive protests from next of kin, the in situ burial of the Estonia is aborted in the summer of 1996. The law prohibiting diving near the wreck is upheld. ibid. caption
In November 1994 it was known that the bow visor had detached. Witnesses had seen that the bow visor was gone. ibid. Jaan Metsavver, accident investigation commission
This hole is probably the main cause of the sinking of the boat. ibid.
Interviewer: Who put the explosive there?
Investigator: I don’t know. ibid.
The Accident Investigation Commission claims there is no need for further investigation. The Commission maintains that the shipwreck was adequately investigated in 1994. ibid. captions
We found the hole … That’s all we need for an investigation. ibid. divers
137,967. The Estonia was used in a smuggling operation which brought vital secrets from Russia to the West. It was a combined operation involving MI6, Estonian Intelligence and Swedish Intelligence. There were clear and specific warnings from the Russians to the West. ibid. investigator
Tallinn-Stockholm: It was a very successful route which they used for a number of years. Estonia IV: Secrets at the Bottom of the Sea, investigator
The same day the Estonia sank rumours surfaced that it was being used to smuggle military equipment. ibid. Lars Angstrom, former Swedish MP
The military clearly used a civilian passenger ferry to transport military cargo. ibid. outraged politician
cf.
There’s no reason to believe they attempted to transport anything. ibid. inquiry dude’s findings
It must have been organised by the most secretive Swedish military intelligence … They are scared of what the truth might reveal. ibid. old dude
Four days after the disaster the first surveys of the wreck are made. ibid.
The first thing we need to find the truth is new dives. ibid. prosecutor
I want answers. I won’t rest till I have answers. Estonia V: The Dive, Harald Setsaas, next of kin
It’s hard to understand how the boat could have sunk without a hole in the hull to release the air pockets. ibid. Rolf Imstol, maritime casualty analyst and stability expert